My Mia

Before I was even pregnant with our twins, we went on a trip to Asheville with some close friends. My friend, Kellie, and I went shopping and we went into this little baby and children clothes shop and the cute lady working there had her daughter with her and I remember this precious little blond headed girl and her name was Mia. Immediately, I fell in love with the name. I knew that if I ever had a girl, Mia would be her name (who knew I would have 4 girls and would NEVER get to use my boy name, Charlie). Anyway, I digress...after looking the name up in a baby names book when I eventually did get pregnant, I found out that Mia means "mine" and it is also a derivative of Mary (a nod to my sweet hubby's Catholic background) and is also a derivative of Michael, Kevin's middle name. So many connections...

Well, "my" Mia, loves to please. She literally thrives on praise.

Earlier this week, I got very sick with some sort of infection (maybe sinus?) and I was out of commission for practically 2 days. I thought our family would turn into a Chick-Fil-A chicken nugget with the amount of nuggets they ate in those 2 days. So, last night, I was BACK. No more sick people in this house...no ma'am. This calls for a veggie stir fry.

Well, I made this amazing stir-fry with Gardein "chicken" for me and the real thing for the kids and Kevin. As soon as the girls came to the table, the tears welled up in their blue eyes and I just looked at them and said, "this is dinner...I just spent 45 minutes making it if you don't eat it or complain, my feelings will be so hurt." I am hoping that the Catholic guilt is genetic from my husband. I told them that they had to eat a taste of each veggie and eat all the chicken and the rice. So, Chloe, did just that (no more, no less)---did I mention she's a rule follower? An hour later, Mia and I are still sitting there.

Mia and Chloe had just had their swim class before dinner and Mia all of a sudden started complaining that her eyes were burning...(that's funny because as you were watching Scooby Doo, and I was cooking, they were fine). Then Quinnlan (who had not been to swim class) starts saying her eyes are burning. The 2 year old cracks me up.

So, I told Chloe to go and pick a candy from our "Candy Bucket" to put in her lunch for the next day and Mia is on high alert at that.

So I told her (calmly---even though I am so bugged) that she has to eat her broccoli, at least, and the chicken and the rice. So, she begins to eat the broccoli and...shhhh...I think she likes it! She ate the whole thing and I was going absolutely nutso! I'm hugging her and swinging her around and telling her proud I am of her and she is just beaming from ear to ear. Finally we fell on the kitchen floor with her in my lap and I just showered her with praise. She glowed as she picked out her candy for lunch and was still glowing as we went to bed...an hour past bedtime.

One more precious thing about my Mia...She has begun asking the most conscientious questions. Kevin will come in at the end of the day and she will sincerely ask him, "How was work today, Daddy?" or when we go out to eat she'll say, "How is your burrito, Mommy?"

I could just eat her up. She is growing into the most wonderful little girl.

I am so blessed.